Mating: Seeing Red
by retro and vintage
Summary: You and your views on love Skarlet. Would it make a difference if you rip of our garb? Lick our lips and pretend that we indulge the sensation your hands had caused? We did not feel as such. No, both of us don't know what to make of this emotion
1. Seeing Red I

AN: Ermac and Skarlet. I know it's weird, highly illogical and out of character but I couldn't get off this type of story out of my mind so...That seems to be a pathetic alibi. It contains smut, lots. There's no love in this and no, I'm not a fan of this pairing. It's a forced relationship. I'm not fan of any pairings honestly.

This is a sort of draft; I typed it straight into my laptop as I think of it.

This story is sort of AU. Pretty much isolating itself from the realm of Mortal Kombat and it transcends to its own abstract reality like the future chronicles I'll create...That's pretty poetic...

Please review for Ermac's sanity. I'll probably do Sub Zero and Kitana after this.

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><p><strong>Seeing Red I<strong>

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><p><em>There is neither lust nor hatred<em>

_We did not trade soft trails of kisses_

_And every touch is dreaded_

_As we force every caress_

_All is the same with every garment loosened._

_None has changed_

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><p>Love.<p>

It is a very aesthetic word. We tend to say it among ourselves alone, the way the tongue moves to release it from the pit of the throat. It was an alien sensation to us. We did not give concern if it was a sign of weakness; we're not even sure if it is. We're merely speaking a light hearted four letter word, a motif for all the virtues that exist. There's no harm.

"Love..." We heard a dying prisoner choke out. It was one of his many final words. A force of breath. He knew he'd risk of the last drops of his life with speaking. His lungs were damaged, his throat constricting, His tongue was...it was unrecognizable. His body took the form of a mangled cadaver afterwards.

What's so special about the word? That someone had to say it to risk the swift raid of death?

Love is a wonderful thing. The Edenian princess, absentmindedly curled her tresses of her long hair, told us. We saw a glimmer in her features as she said this. She beckoned us to get closer to her, she whispered in a very courteous manner we never thought we'd see.

"Ermac, you give me hope..." We had not talked to her since.

Love is a powerful force. Shang Tsung mused as he tended to his developing experiments. He found it funny we entertain the idea.

I doubt you would understand it. We heard from the Emerald Edeinan Guard.

We got curious.

We walked on the palace halls and searched for the royal library. It was in ruins. Books scattered on the marble floor, with layers and layers of dust enveloping the large cylindrical room. With impending wars, maids didn't even bother to clean this threshold of knowledge. Pathetic. This place holds many things.

This place made us understand.

Since our creation we sought the company of these innocuous books. We never thought of entertaining the mere small talk our allies make, sometimes we admit, we feel they're feeding us lies. But books never saw the need to speak of such heinous and blasphemous words. The bookshelves filled with books were sorely tempting, and we spent hours in its presence. We read forgotten books, abandoned encyclopedias with worn leather binding. Authors were native of various realms, each with their own language that we understood after a few weeks. We were enlightened about many things. Science had done many things for our minds. We sucked in the information like the greedy sybarites, we kept coming back for more and we wanted it for ourselves. We never shared what we knew. We knew many things.

Or we think we do.

Subjects of compassion and the arts are not present; it seems they don't exist in this technical world. We were dismayed to not even find the slightest sign of artwork in these books. One of the rare times these books left me unsatisfied. Stories, legends, and epics weren't even here. Even other references made no mention of such vibrant emotions and affection we gathered from the obscure memories of our souls within us.

We never saw 'love' discussed in the library we asked countless questions to.

Love. We don't know what to make of it.

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><p>"Of course! Love <em>is<em> color red!"

"Explain"

"Because_ it is_! Silly you!"

We felt ashamed about asking her. She seems aware of this trivial emotion we harbor just now and she's making it her own advantage. To make it fair, we did almost made her feel the same with our discovery.

The tarkatan woman has crafted an object out of dusty brown fabric. We seem to recognize the object she holds. Yet, we don't know the purpose why she made the childish toy. We are surprised ourselves she took the time to create it. She cradled the thing in her arms and muttered mantras in its ears. She even bragged that we are the first to see it.

It was a mere excuse; she tried to hide that thing when we spotted her sewing it with her hands under the table. We unintentionally caught her off guard.

"I'm giving it to...someone special." We could tell she was smiling under her pink veil. It was a cruel smile. "Don't tell anyone."

"We see, for what purpose?"

"Because I want to!" She pinched its arms and gave the stuffed toy an animated life as she held it like a puppeteer. "Ermac, don't tell anyone I'm giving it to Scorpion, pretty please?" She made gestures to the toy and it gave an innocuous display of begging. And in a moment of unexpected discovery; we saw her face was flustered with hues of pink.

We never really considered this tarkatan an acquaintance. We never did. We only wanted to ask questions. Obviously she's the wrong person to talk to.

Then she made it 'talk' "Ermy won't tell anyone! Won't you? Especially not to _Scorpion.._." She placed emphasis on the specter's name

To the specter? Unusual. He is capable of such acts of affection? "We don't see the need to tell anyone."

"Good" She placed her toy at a nearby wooden table. Then she cradled our hands as she drew us closer. We'll hurt her if she goes too far from our arms. We would.

"You really want to know what love is?" She brushed her thumbs on our knuckles, and caressed the loosened wrinkles of our gloves.

"Not necessarily, we're merely...curious." I replied numbly.

"You're funny" she teased. And in an unexpected gesture she gave a light pat on our shoulder. What is she doing?

"You won't get it, even I don't know what it really is" She turned her head and gazed at the toy, lying askew on the table. She had a very jejune visage as she gazed at her precious creation.

We have no clue were this conversation was going, we expected a rejoinder to her words. A bit of 'seductive' strides as others would call it. Then we realized after gazing at her face that she waiting for us to speak. What should we say? Does she expect us to enlighten her with mere words? We ourselves lack the heuristic skills to...

"Ermac, do me a favor" She chided softly, she made her voice mellow to lure us in. She clasped her hands together like a prayer children make at night and made herself look like a hungry beggar.

"Do tell"

"If you get it, can you tell me what it's like?" Her eyes were sanguine; the demonic glare it bear now fading away." I kind of want to know..."

"We doubt we would truly understand it."

We never did. We never share what we knew. But we never did find out what love is.

And we never understood why Love is red.

* * *

><p>"Another one?"<p>

"Literally yes, but it's different"

We entered the flesh pits since the sorcerer asked of our presence. Here in the center of the makeshift laboratory he has crafted another one of his abominations.

We are one as well.

The cave like room grew dim; the decorative corpses that hung on the ceiling seem worthless compared to what we saw in the core of the Flesh pits. There, inside a luminous glass tube was an amorphous volume of blood. Strange, that it defies the laws we read in chemistry, blood and water should mix forming a homogeneous mixture. The blood was moving in a lethargic manner, moving like it had a mind of its own. And it was dark red, it's deoxygenated. The owner of this blood was dead, it was a sluggish theory.

"It's almost like you in comparison" Shang Tsung took the form of an elderly and asked us to look at the cylindrical tube closer. We obliged.

"What is this specimen?"

"Ah, now you asked. It's a collection of blood of the many warriors that fought in Mortal Kombat, and it's fused together with sorcery"

"And alchemy" We pointed out.

He smirked and looked at the tube again. "Yes, a minute help from alchemy"

"Odd though, the amount blood doesn't look that voluminous" We asked cautiously as we gave the forming organism a closer look. "If it is from countless warriors like you claim."

"It doesn't need pints and pints of blood. We collected it in modicum amounts to occupy more warriors in its being" He tapped the glass twice with his yellowish nail. We were startled to see this thing react to the sound. A monster in the making.

We felt empty.

"When its complete, it'll be a, how you say, a very formidable warrior." He placed his hand behind his back, he looked pleased. The blood now started to take its permanent form. It looked human. Both of us watched it transform, it took a shape of a woman. We could see the nascent of bones in the dissembled form of cartilage. Her...appendages are apparent. But the body itself never made any significant movement. Not a sign of respiration or blinking of the eye. Looking at it, it's a human in its blob form. Bones, muscles, viscera made entirely out of blood.

Strange that it reminded us of a surreal vision of a woman's womb we read in the human anatomy.

"Do you mind if we ask you to explain about its abilities?"

"It receives strength from its enemies' blood. That's how we intended it. So when engaged in battle, it'll be stronger- I don't think I need to explain further. You already understand it don't you?"

"Yes"

He gazed at me, his old eyes scrunched up in weariness that spoke of playfulness. "Look at this, a fusion of souls, and now I'm creating another one with blood, it's very humorous."

Shang Tsung laughed to himself. "But it doesn't compare to you though, you're someone to be feared but sadly, we had to restrain you"

"Restrain?" What is he trying to imply? We are not weak by any means, he knows it himself. We know it ourselves...

"We're preventing a rebellion, with those souls inside of you; you might switch sides when a soul possesses you." He grinned. Now all that was needed was our reply. His face looked like it was about to laugh lightheartedly, yet we don't see the humor.

"Why are you telling us this? You're actually risking the possibility of that event to occur?" This body of ours was unable to express the lingering nervousness we felt. He looked at us with fake grimness.

"I handpicked those souls myself, Ermac. But...I doubt you would even had the conviction to rebel"

"Indeed, we don't" We agreed. He was foolish to think as such.

"I meant what I said, those souls in you are important to each of their respective realms." He looked at us solemnly; he was not paying attention to coming 'birth' of the creation before us. Our eyes seemed dilated at his words.

We were shocked at this. This is the first time he told us the plans and the process of how we were created. The souls in us are from Outworld, lest that's what we've been told. Now, out of the blue, he discloses us this information, we had this new feeling that brought discomfort and serendipity, is it distrust?

He continued. "Are you really that faithful to the emperor?"

"Yes, we are, more than you think" We stood our ground, he did created us, but he had no right to question our beliefs. As we look at it, he seems to be the traitor. He spoke of heresies and imbroglio of blasphemies. We were seduced to kill him. Almost. The smile on his face made it harder to resist the urge to kill him.

He had a grim look on his face. "You're faithful to him now but...that loyalty won't last" He gave a wry smile, suitable for an old man. He was truly a...

"You dare question us?" We grew irritated, and greenish hues of ethereal energy surrounded our hands. Yet we wish not to end his life here. Not yet, we wanted to make him suffer for this indirect accusation. We direly do.

He laughed loudly. We were baffled at his change of attitude. Was he playing with us?

"I was only testing you, and it's a fair warning. Keep that in mind" We couldn't believe that he simply disregarded the nascent of our anger. We were about to kill him, about to choke him here and thought of towing his corpse in the Emperor's throne room. Wasn't he frightened at this?

Then we remembered his words, and we felt guilty. We did. Now we realized what he tried to do. He was...examining our loyalty in an odd way only he understands.

He took a step forwards, the glass tube and it observed it further. "Besides" He said without looking at me. "I notice your thirst for knowledge; you're one of the rare denizens of this place to be evidently happy in the library. But now I'm giving you an advice. Stop it."

"Where's the harm in reading?" Really, where is the harm in it? The common brusqueness in the air was returning as we said it.

"There's a lot of harm. So many ways it can change you I don't even know where to start. I won't tell you anything more, I might rub it on you the wrong way but just stop reading. Or else you would risk treason from Shao Kahn."

We thought of a suggestion. "Perhaps you can cast a spell on us to prevent it"

He genuinely smiled at the comment. "It seems I've forgotten to provide you more information about those souls. They're not only warriors, not mere beings that wield weapons of war and sought out fights in the battlefield and die like vermin. They have true power, authority. You have souls of royalty, souls from prestige clans. Alchemists, blacksmiths, merchants, sorcerers. Everything. All of them from different times and changed history in their own accord. And it might surprise you; you even have the souls of tarkatans, shokans and other extinct races. You're already a threshold of knowledge Ermac. Can't you see the advantage you have?"

We were speechless...we try to suck in the information but...

"You're shocked I see" He crossed his arms. He seems to revel in this.

"We...yes"

He turned his head to the unattended glass tube. "To ease this fulsome news I gave you, I'll tell you one more thing about this" He placed his hand on the cold surface of the tube. "You have many souls, but this one doesn't have one"

"How is that possible? All living things have souls, even those beasts..."

"Not this one, it's only a body, almost like an animal, or more like what those earthrealmers say, a robot." He said. We urged him to continue.

"It only relies on instinct; it only acts to Shao Kahn's will; unless overpowered with sorcery. That thing may seem like Mileena, but she has the advantage of having a void for a mind. It'll only kill for Shao Kahn and that's what it will always do."

"What do you mean by void?"

Now he smiled at his creation, and then he looked at us after thinking of the right words in order to not mislead us. "It has no free will; the only emotions will feel are anger and distrust, all the negative things. But I couldn't be exactly sure, these are just mere predictions.I could be wrong you know" He paused to catch his breath, clearly taking the form of an old man isn't appropriate for this. "But I hope not."

"So that thing has no soul" We queried after thinking about his explanations.

"Yes, it's merely a vessel. But who knows, sometimes souls can form."

We took another glance at the thing, an urge formed within us. But we couldn't tell what it is.

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><p><em>Love is Red.<em>

_Red, like freed blood from flayed flesh._

_Red, like the faint blush on the flustered face._

_Red, like her blood stained hair_

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><p>AN: It's a prologue... Of course it's short. But really though, is my writing fine? I actually wanted to experiment with something surreal and doleful. Something different for a change. Reviews would be really appreciated (I don't do emoticons I'm sorry) And if you don't mind, can you tell others about this story? A million thanks.<p>

I know Shao Kahn 'created' her, but it makes more sense with Shang Tsung.


	2. Seeing Red II

AN: The original excerpt was accidentally deleted a few days ago, a stupid mistake. My sincerest apologies guys, I really tried to remember what I wrote. I am overwhelming with regret right now. Also, no more poems, I effing realized how lame it was after I reread it.

I fail in biology though, lol. If any of my descriptions doesn't look right...just go with it. :)

Mr. Havik: Really sorry If I fail your expectations in this one though :( I was proud with my first excerpt, really I was. Note this story will also go on painfully slow.

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><p><strong>Seeing Red II<strong>

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><p><em>The white blood cells would attempt to devour every cell they could find in a mindless frenzy, confused to the accumulation of millions and millions of foreign bodies in this strange organism they transfused into. The microorganisms that inhabit this fetus-woman were numerous, bacteria would eat the dead cells, and viruses would multiply - overwhelming the human cells. Most of the non-human cells carry diseases with them, some cells were dying, most of them were mutated, some foreign bodies had even managed to disrupt the nuclei and the chromosome of such fragile cells; Adrenaline would be absorbed in the wrong places - tissues were bearing signs of tumors, the genetic coding of young cells were gravely changed. Lymphocytes and fellow antibodies were in panic.<em>

_It was a terrible imbalance._

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><p>Her eyes flickered when consciousness was recognized by its developing grey matter.<p>

The second one, then the third, and finally a painful fourth.

But it could only do one sluggish flutter immediately afterwards the movement- she refused to open her eyes again; the minute motion was discomforting for her dermis eyelids. At that instant she noticed other sensations she failed to feel since her conception. All she felt was pain, short lived pains that would fade into the young nerves - but these minute irritations were foible.

This was the twelfth day of her existence, and till now she has never seen the world outside of her glass womb in its eternal essence. Red was the color, the sight, and the void that she could see - even when her eyelids are shut to light. A few hours ago she managed to decipher beyond the colorless walls but she lost her interest - seeing how unclear the world was.

Ever since her planned conception the dungeon beneath Shao Kahn's Coliseum was rid of unkempt prisoners - dead, dying or alive. And the blood collected from these creatures had formed a mixture that would excite alchemists to no bounds. A mixture of life, how would it excite them so! And a mixture as well - that would annoy or intrigue people of science - her mere existence had broken the natural laws these men had incorporated in the physical world.

Shang Tsung would have been proud – should have been – to create such an abomination that could rival the necromancy of Quan Chi.

As amazing it may sound, to maintain its crumbling homeostasis was no easy task. Although her vital organs are forming like those of a fetus, her bone marrows were near completion to supply any loss of blood; and other body systems that spread like blueprints were forming in a slow pace like what Shang Tsung had predicted.

But he did not expect her to suffer episodes of seizures.

She would ram her hands on the wall; her head, her knees, and elbows would punch the glass in such sheer force it would break loose tides of cold red water (Shang Tsung had to fix the glass tube himself). She has lost too much pints of blood already that she lost a leg. To make up for the loss of blood her being would manage by thinning an appendage to the width of her bones to complete her form.

He was confused. This was not supposed to happen. He has witnessed the necromancer Quan Chi's meddling with thousands of corpses for so many times he could recite the processes without even trying to confirm to his memory if they were right.

Surely he had done…nothing wrong. Manipulating corpses should be easier than souls, shouldn't it?

He observed her movement for hours, the rate of his disappointment would increase with each convulsion of her fetus like form, her eyelids had dissolved in the water and now her eyes were in full view, never blinking. The epidermis that was forming successfully had now vanished and revealed her dermis - her insides. She was like a skinned goat prepared for a meal, her bones, cartilage and tendons are dilapidated and her appendages were near breakage with her loose joints.

A seemingly final epileptic tremor followed, the worst of them all, she had lost control over her body. She would mindlessly flail her arms about (she often hit herself), Wriggle her legs into uncomfortable positions then to painful numbing ones. It was an earthquake that overtook her, her ribs were loosened from her skin, parts of he skeletal system were exposed, her left eye was free from the eye socket, her soft bones were mangled, body parts ending up in the wrong place, and her intestines managed to escape from her torso.

She had suffered these seizures without screaming.

Twenty minutes have passed, then she stopped, either exhausted or paralyzed, she floated in such stillness it seems time had stopped with her.

She was like a ragged doll he had seen from voo doo practitioners back in Earth realm. Shreds of flesh would float around her, and hints of cartilage too. It was hard to tell if she were dead. She is such a macabre thing to look at that Shang Tsung looked away from his creation in disgust.

Pathetic.

He temporarily restored her true form with arcane magic and left her in exasperation.

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><p>Ermac heard of Shang Tsung's problem, in compliance to the instinct implanted in his body he thought of searching for solutions to this...drawback. He knew there was something wrong with the creation's development, he felt it.<p>

Ermac browsed throughout the library, winnowing the books that he needed and placed them all in a large wooden table. It was a mess. Ermac sat one of the nearby stools adjacent to the table and began his research. It was a simple task, all he needed was to look for the keywords 'blood', 'homeostasis', 'hormones', and so forth; any term in relation to the lymph node system or any subject helpful. He picked a random book from the pile and started to read, the crumbling pages smelt of dried grains.

He finished skimming the first book, and stopped himself. He looked at the stack of books again and a sigh was released from his ribcage.

This was pointless.

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><p>Five hours had passed by. Some lines of sunlight missed the window Ermac was near to.<p>

Once more, he gazed at the fading words again, in deep thought he had doubted this excursion the instant he took note of how archaic most of these books were. How can he tolerate the onerous flaws he noticed in his research for the past five hours?

Heavens, most of these books were retrospective, old and outdated. The ink that made the words were saturated, and what more of the pictures? The colors were too abstruse to decipher what the picture really looked like. Some of these books were in different languages as well, Ermac doubted any of his translations were correct, seeing that most of them were mixed with other unknown dialects, the fading words did not help either.

The information too, it was a fiasco. These books contradict each other when it comes to information, the laws and theories illustrated here and there weren't making sense.

Some of the information was true, but he didn't believe them.

"No! Stop it please!"

"Shut up!"

Silence.

Startled, he turned his head towards the source of the noise, three bookshelves to his left, near the third niche... He listened.

It was a girl and a boy. The girl was screaming hard, the voices were piercing, bouncing back in echoes along the cylindrical walls- but the library was so large it failed to disturb its placid ambiance. Ermac heard signs of beatings inflicted on the woman, the sound of blood trickling on the tarmac floor. But all he heard from the man were groans and deranged laughter.

In hesitation, and with the curse of curiosity forming, Ermac began to look for them.

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><p>AN: Cliffhanger? Hmmm don't feel it hehe. I'm still working on the part after this though :)<p> 


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